Crime rates continue to creep upward while the ratio of police officers to residents continues to fall in Pleasant Grove.
Pleasant Grove Police Chief Michael W. Ferre told members of the City Council last week there are 12 officers keeping the peace for the city's 17,294 residents. That's .69 officers per every 1,000 residents.A "comfortable" average is one officer per 1,000 residents, according to Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Tom Paul.
In 1975, the city had eight officers for 6,900 residents, a ratio of 1.2 officers per every 1,000 residents.
"We're headed downhill in relationship to officers per thousand," Ferre said. "I bet we are one of the lowest in the state, if not the lowest."
Sometime soon the city needs to look at increasing its police manpower, he said.
In 1990, the police department received 14,281 calls for service. It filed 1,204 crime reports and issued 2,371 citations.
There were 813 "part one" crimes reported in Pleasant Grove. Part-one crimes are considered more serious and typically involve violence. The largest category of part-one crimes was misdemeanor theft: 153 reported cases, 97 of which were solved. Such thefts increased 33 percent from 1989.
Other significant categories were theft from vehicles, 138; simple assault, 86; and felony theft, 80. Part-one crimes have increased about 40 percent over the past three years, Ferre said.
There were 1,638 "part two" crimes in the city - bad-check writing, sexual abuse, indecent exposure and reckless driving. The largest categories of part-two crimes were criminal mischief, 296; family fights, 172; noise disturbance, 156; and writing bad checks, 126.
"A lot of the crimes that I see that are up . . . represent hostility to me," Ferre said.
Officers arrested a total of 375 adults and 383 juveniles during the year.
Most incidents or calls for service - 10,571 - occurred in the "other" category, which includes such things as: requests for assistance (1,291); reports of suspicious person/vehicle (1,269); traffic offense warnings (2,124); and traffic citations (1,760).
During 1990 there were 294 traffic accidents in Pleasant Grove. According to the police report, Pleasant Grove residents are most apt to be involved in a traffic accident on a Monday or Tuesday between 3 and 4 p.m. on a clear or cloudy day.
Twenty percent of the accidents (132) involved males between 16 and 19 years of age. The most "high-risk accident locations" are 300 E. State St., the Pleasant Grove High School parking lot and the intersection of Main and State streets. The two primary causes of accidents: improper lookout (23 percent) and failure to yield (22 percent).
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In Pleasant Grove:
- An incident call is received every 36.8 minutes.
- A police report is filed every 2.7 hours.
- A crime is reported every 3.54 hours.
- A misdemeanor crime is reported every 5.3 hours.
- A felony crime is reported every 10.7 hours.
- A theft occurs every 15.23 hours.
- A burglary occurs every 3.61 days.
- An assault occurs every 3.96 days.
- A rape occurs every 73 days.